Helmut Zemo
: "An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumbles from within? That's dead. Forever." : ― Helmut Zemo Colonel Helmut Zemo is a Sokovian citizen turned terrorist mastermind who sought revenge against the Avengers after losing his family in the Battle of Sokovia, becoming obsessed with defeating and destroying them. Knowing that he was no match against the Avengers, he instead planned to have them destroy each other by first framing the Winter Soldier for the assassination of T'Chaka, causing Captain America to defend his closest friend from the world. This action had caused the Avengers Civil War in which Iron Man led a manhunt for the Winter Soldier and Zemo allowed Iron Man to discover that the Winter Soldier was also responsible for the deaths of his parents. With the Avengers in ruins, Zemo then attempted to commit suicide but was stopped by the Black Panther and handed over to Everett Ross for his imprisonment. Biography Early Life EKO Scorpion Helmut Zemo was born in 1978 in Novi Grad, the capital city of Sokovia. Zemo became a Sokovian intelligence officer and commander of EKO Scorpion, an elite Sokovian paramilitary tactical unit. Despite the nature of his job, he was able to form a family marrying a woman and having a son, Carl, with her. Zemo and his family lived a happy life in Novi Grad, and maintained good relationships with his father in the Sokovian countryside. His son also developed a fascination with the Avengers and greatly desired to see them, specifically Iron Man, in action. Battle of Sokovia However, his happiness was not to last. When Ultron attacked Sokovia, Zemo and his EKO Scorpion squad were called upon to assist in the defence of Sokovia. Zemo sent his family to take refuge at his father's home outside of Novi Grad, where he believed they would be safe from peril. Despite this, his wife, son and father were killed as a result - their bodies were found by Zemo two days after the Sokovia battle. Though Ultron was defeated and destroyed by the Avengers, Zemo angrily blamed them for causing his family's death and vowed to destroy the team at all costs. Knowing he could not hope to win by force, he sought to manipulate them into destroying each other instead. Manipulating the Avengers Questioning Vasily Karpov To that end, Zemo located Vasily Karpov, one of the former leaders of the Winter Soldier Program, who was in hiding with HYDRA having been wiped out. Having discovered Karpov's location, Zemo knew that he would be unable to easily break into Karpov's home so instead faked a car crash and asked Karpov to invite him inside to discuss the matter in private, rather than contacting the police. As soon as Karpov opened the door, Zemo attacked and subdued Karpov before tying him upside down above a sink slowly filling with water. Using a hammer to bust through the walls of Karpov's cellar, Zemo found and took the Winter Soldier Book from Karpov's HYDRA files and introduced himself while speaking politely to Karpov, before demanding information about the assassination of Howard and Maria Stark which had occurred back in the year 1991. Despite Zemo making his intentions very clear that he would not stop until he had the information he needed to exact his violent revenge, noting that his loyalties did not lie within HYDRA, Karpov refused to help him. Seeing that Karpov would not speak to him, Zemo left the tap running while Karpov gave the famous HYDRA salute. Zemo then walked straight out of the house, taking his new stolen belongings while Karpov slowly drowned inside of his own sink. Using the information he had obtained, Zemo framed the former Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes, into taking the fall for a bombing which killed the Wakandan king T'Chaka. The timing of events coincided with the signing of the Sokovia Accords, a framework that would place enhanced people under government oversight, and a burgeoning cause of friction between Captain America, who refused the oversight, and Iron Man, who supported it. Re-Activating the Winter Soldier Having been hunted across the world for his apparent involvement in T'Chaka's death, Bucky Barnes was eventually caught and subdued in part to the efforts of Everett Ross' men and War Machine and, into the custody of the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre. Knowing this, Zemo awaited the arrival of Theo Broussard while listening to his late wife's voicemail message before greeting Broussard. Zemo brought Broussard back to his own hotel room where he proceeded to murder him and hide his body in the bathtub. While practising reading the trigger words from the Winter Soldier Book he would need to gain control of Barnes, Zemo was interrupted by the arrival of his breakfast, not allowing the woman to enter so she did not see Broussard's body or the bomb he had made. Zemo then had an ally deliver the bomb to a power station. Arriving at the facility, Zemo found Barnes was locked in a contained cell with his robotic arm tightly fixed down as Zemo posed as the psychiatrist Broussard, who was supposed to evaluate his mental well-being before Barnes was sent to Wakanda to await his trial for the murders of King T'Chaka and many others. Knowing that the cameras were on him and people like Everett Ross were watching him closely, Zemo began by doing a true evaluation of Barnes' mind while awaiting news on the next stage of his plan. Zemo continued the evaluation, he then got a text giving him a warning just before the power around the base was cut out, including the cameras. Zemo then reactivated Barnes' Winter Soldier Program training by using the HYDRA manual he procured from Barnes' former handler Vasily Karpov, which led to Barnes breaking free of his restraints to stop Zemo's plans, ripping his arms free and punching the glass to try and get away. Zemo was able to finish saying the codewords just as Barnes broke free and became his willing assassin. Zemo requested the mission report about the death of Howard Stark. Having obtained the information he needed, Zemo ordered the Winter Soldier to fight and kill anyone who attempted to stop him before getting in a helicopter and escaping to seemingly prove his guilt for the bombing. As the Winter Soldier obeyed his orders, Zemo was confronted by Captain America and Falcon who attempted to save Barnes. Rogers demanded to know what Zemo wanted and was told that he wanted to see an empire fall. Before Rogers could take Zemo into custody however, the Winter Soldier charged forward and attacked, knocking Sam Wilson onto the floor before using his Prosthetic Arm to throw Rogers down an elevator shaft. As Zemo went to check if Rogers had been killed, Wilson awoke and chased the fleeing Zemo, who ran up a flight of stairs with Wilson close behind. Eventually Zemo made it outside into Berlin where he ditched his jacket and disappeared. Fall of the Avengers Once the Avengers' co-leaders had gathered forces for their factions and fought each other to a near-standstill, Zemo travelled to Siberia seemingly to reawaken from cryostasis the five remaining soldiers from the Winter Soldier Program. While waiting for his transport, Zemo again listened to the voicemail message left by his deceased wife to remind himself of his motives against the Avengers. Boarding a plane to his destination, Zemo made his escape from Berlin and soon arrived in Moscow, and then proceeded to travel to the Siberian region of Russia. Having arrived and hired a snow plow to make it through the harsh weather, Zemo contacted his hotel back in Berlin and requested his usual breakfast, knowing that the maid would find the corpse of Theo Broussard, allowing those who were following him to learn his identity and follow him to his location. Zemo had soon arrived at the HYDRA Siberian Facility where Vasily Karpov had worked decades before and soon found the remaining Winter Soldiers, including Josef who were being held in Cryostasis Chambers. While waiting for Captain America, the Winter Soldier and Iron Man to arrive as he knew they would soon learn his identity, Zemo killed all five soldiers with a single bullet to the head each while they slept before finding a sealed room for him to wait in. When the three arrived, he greeted them, revealing that he had lost everyone he loved during the Battle of Sokovia and that he had then orchestrated events for the Avengers to fight one another. He then played a video of surveillance footage from 1991 of Barnes, under the control of HYDRA, killing Tony Stark's parents. This revelation caused a brutal and emotional fight between the three heroes, while Zemo took the opportunity to get away from the immediate area. Success and Arrest Zemo awaited the result of the ensuing battle in the snow, content that he had split the Avengers apart as their leaders fought to the death. While overlooking the landscape, Zemo listened to his wife's final voicemail one last time before deleting it. Black Panther had then found Zemo and they discussed his involvement in the death of T'Chaka, which had almost led to Black Panther killing the innocent Winter Soldier for revenge due to all of Zemo's manipulations. Seeing the rage of Captain America and Iron Man, Black Panther had refused to allow himself to be consumed by revenge, seeing it within Zemo's heart. Believing his plan to be complete regardless, Zemo attempted suicide by placing his gun under his chin; however, the Black Panther stopped him in time by catching the bullet in the palm of his Panther Habit and putting Zemo in a choke hold. Zemo was then bound by Black Panther, who took him to be arrested. Zemo, arrested for his crimes against the Avengers, was left to be mocked in a containment cell by Everett Ross at the headquarters of the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre. Ross taunted Zemo by explaining that if he ever tried to escape or even raised his voice in protest, he would receive a painful electric shock. Ross then asked Zemo how it felt to see his plan fail so spectacularly after spending so much time and effort and Zemo simply replied by asking him, "Did it?". Abilities * Master Tactician: Zemo, as the former intelligence officer and commander of the elite Sokovian paramilitary tactical unit EKO Scorpion, is a brilliant tactician, being able to mastermind a series of events in order to get his revenge against the Avengers for their role in the destruction of Sokovia and the death of his family. He was also smart enough to know that he had no hope of killing the Avengers, even if he had raised an army. So then, Zemo decided that it would instead be better to manipulate them into destroying themselves, which he succeeded in doing, with Iron Man and Captain America starting the Avengers Civil War, and the organisation comes out fractured and to a certain extent, crippled. Although he had the option of releasing the other brainwashed Winter Soldiers from their sleep at the HYDRA Siberian Facility, he deemed that releasing the assassins would result in the Avengers joining forces to fight Zemo, instead of their division. * Multilingual: Zemo can speak his native Sokovian, as well as English, German, and Russian. He is good enough with English to fake a very convincing American accent. * Master Hacker: After Black Widow released all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s and HYDRA's files on the Internet, Zemo was able to hack and decrypt the files pertaining to the Winter Soldier Program. * Combatant: Zemo's extensive military and black ops background gave him adequate degree of knowledge on close-quarters combat. While he's not as talented as Captain America or Black Panther, he was able to easily take down Vasily Karpov, a former HYDRA agent. * Expert Engineer: Zemo was able to build an EMP bomb that was able to take out Berlin's power plant. Equipment Weapons * Smith & Wesson 6906: Zemo took this weapon to Siberia while preparing an ambush on the Avengers, killing the Winter Soldiers with it and successfully manipulating Iron Man into attacking Captain America and the Winter Soldier in retaliation for the assassination of Stark's parents. With his personal mission completed, he went outside the facility to listen to his wife's latest voice message for the last time and attempted to use the handgun to commit suicide. However, Black Panther prevented him from killing himself in order to make Zemo pay for his crimes. * AK-103: Members of EKO Scorpion, including Zemo, were issued these assault rifles as their standard weapon during operations, even appearing in photographs with the rifles. * Various Bombs ** Incendiary Device: Zemo used the bomb to kill the attendees of the Vienna conference. ** EMP: Zemo used this to knock out the power to the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre Building in Berlin, Germany, allowing him to free the Winter Soldier without being seen or heard. Other Equipment * Winter Soldier Book: Zemo stole this booklet from a house in Cleveland, Ohio after torturing and killing the house's sole resident, Vasily Karpov. The book contains all information about Winter Soldier Program, including several "trigger words" that Zemo used to activate the Winter Soldier's HYDRA-created thought patterns while Barnes was in custody in Berlin, causing him to then go on a furious rampage. Relationships Category:Humans Category:Characters Category:Villains Category:EKO Scorpion Members